Eastern Bengali, Baṅgālī Bengali (, ) or Vaṅga Bengali (, ), is a set of vernacular dialects of Bengali, spoken in most of Bangladesh, parts of Tripura and West Bengal, Barak Valley in Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and surrounding areas.
Names It is also known as Baṅgālī (), Pūrvavaṅgīẏa (), Prācya (), Vaṅga (), or Vaṅgīẏa (). Chatterji often cited a more generalised variant of Eastern Bengali which he dubbed as, Typical East Bengali, for the sake of broader comparison with other varieties of Bengali. Eastern Bengali is often colloquially referred to by the exonym Bāṅgāl Bhāshā () in West Bengal due to its association with Bangals.
It may also be referred to by names such as Khaisi-Gesi Bangla (), emphasising the contrast between Eastern Bengali varieties and the standard language in terms of grammar by use of the example phrases "I have eaten" ( kheẏechhi in Standard Bengali but khaisi in Typical East Bengali) and "I have gone" ( giẏechhi in Standard Bengali but gesi in Typical East Bengali). A similar name, Khaitasi-Jaitasi Bangla (), instead juxtaposes the examples of "I am eating" ( khacchhi in Standard Bengali but khaitasi in Typical East Bengali) and "I am going" ( jacchhi in Standard Bengali but jaitasi in Typical East Bengali).
Geographical distribution Suniti Kumar Chatterji, describing the cluster as "Vaṅga Dialects", further divided it into two groups of two: "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga". Eastern Vaṅga is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi division of Sylhet and the Greater Comilla region of Chittagong along with the Barak Valley Division of Assam and the state of Tripura in India. Southeastern Vaṅga is spoken in the remaining area of the Chittagong division, corresponding to the former colonial territories of Noakhali District and Chittagong District, and historically extended further into Sittwe.: "It stretches down the East littoral of the Bay of Bengal into Northern Burmah, its way eastwards being similarly barred by the Hill tribes of Arakan. To the South, it meets the Burmese language in the District of Akyab." Western Vaṅga is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, and Barisal. Southwestern Vaṅga is spoken across the Khulna Division, where Eastern Bengali transitions into Central Standard Bengali.: "In the border districts of the delta, namely, South Faridpur, East Nadiya, West Jessore, West Khulna, the Rāḍha and Vaŋga forms intermingle, where Rāḍha influences Vaŋga."
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah divided all Bengali dialects into two groups: Prācya () and Pāścātya ().: "আমরা ধ্বনিতত্ত্ব, রূপতত্ত্ব ও পদক্রম আলোচনা করিয়া বাঙ্গালা উপভাষাগুলিকে দুইটি ভাগে বিভক্ত করিতে পারিঃ (১) পাশ্চাত্য, (২) প্রাচ্য।" Within his Prācya grouping, he created the divisions of "Southeastern" and "Extreme Eastern", which approximately correspond to Chatterji's "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga", respectively. The Southeastern group is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Barisal, and Khulna, as well as the Greater Noakhali region of the Chittagong division and eastern parts of the 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.: "দক্ষিণ-পূর্বঃ—জেলা ২৪ পরগণার পূর্বাংশ, যশোহর জেলা, খুলনা জেলা, ঢাকা বিভাগ এবং নোয়াখালী।" The Extreme Eastern group is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions Sylhet and Chittagong, including Greater Comilla and excluding Greater Noakhali, as well as the Barak Valley division of Assam.: "পূর্ব-প্রান্তিকঃ—কাছাড় হইতে চট্টগ্রাম পর্যন্ত সমস্ত স্থান।"
Gopal Haldar, in his study of Eastern Bengali, divided all East Bengali dialects into four groups. Group I or "Central East Bengali" spans the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Faridpur, and Barisal, as well as the district of Chandpur in Chittagong Division.: "Group I or Dacca Group or the Central EB Group, which may also be called 'East Bengali General', includes the dialects in general of the districts of (1) Dacca, (2) Faridpur, (3) Bakharganja, (4) Maimansing, (5) Sylhet (west) and (6) Comilla (northern and western)." The de facto Standard East Bengali spoken around the Bikrampur region is a member of this group, comparable to Chatterji's "Typical East Bengali".: "along with Dacca-Manikganja dialect, Dacca-Vik. is the main source for what is sometimes called Std. EB" Group II or "Central North East Bengali" is spoken in eastern areas of the Mymensingh and Dhaka divisions, the western half of the Sylhet Division, as well as the Brahmanbaria District of the Chittagong Division.: "The Maim. East division is dialectally allied to the contiguous areas of Habiganja-Sunamganja of Sylhet West and should be taken together for study, and should include in the former (Maim. E-Sylhet W.) and a large slice (Brahmanberia) of Comilla. Group II or Maimansing East - Sylhet West Group." Group III or "North East Bengali" is spoken in the eastern half of the Sylhet Division as well as the bordering Barak Valley division of Assam, India.: "Group III or Sylhet Group or 'North-Eastern Group' of East Bengali (may also be called 'Sylhet-Kachar' Group) includes Sylhet Central (in Bangladesh now), Sylhet southern i.e. Moulavibazar area (in Banglades as well) ; Karimganja (now in Kachar, i.e. within the Indian Union), and Kachar itself (Indian Union)." Group IV or "South East Bengali" is spoken in the Chittagong Division, notably excluding the Greater Comilla region.: "Group IV or Chittagong-Noakhali or 'South-Eastern Group' includes the dialects of Chittagong and Noakhali." The Comilla District and Tripura state of India, the Bengalis in the latter chiefly being migrants from the former, sit at the confluence of all the major groupings and thus the speech of this region shares features with all the major groups classified by Haldar.: "Comilla. formerly Tippera, in which we include Tripura with its immigrant speakers of nearby districts, is a meeting ground of the Groups in its three neighbouring zones ; viz. Chandpur is closer to Dacca Group, Brahmanberia to Maim. East and Sylhet West, a southern West of Comilla strip shows some Noakhali features. When mentioned separately, Comilla or Kumilla signifies sadar areas and is put between Group III and Group IV ; it shows features of Dacca and Maimansing also." Transitionary East Bengali is spoken in the Khulna division as well as Western Greater Faridpur i.e. Rajbari District, which shares features with both Standard Bengali and Eastern Bengali dialects.: "'Transitional' or Khulna-Jessore Group includes Khulna (Banglades), western Faridpur and Jessore (except for Bongaon area, Jessore is in Banglades). As a 'transitional' form it is more and more coming under the influence of the Std. Coll. Bg., though the EB dialectal traits are still there."
Phonology Eastern Bengali is characterised by a considerably smaller phoneme inventory when compared with Standard Bengali.
Epenthesis Modern eastern Bengali notably preserves the Middle Bengali tendency of a form of "epenthesis" (), which is more accurately described as the retrograde metathesis of high-vowel glides (i.e. /i̯/ and /u̯/) across a non-initial consonant boundary.: "So far as Bengali is concerned, we see a weakening of « -i, -u » after « å, ā » in the 14th century; and the beginnings of epenthesis certainly go back to that century." Thus, the equivalent of Standard Literary Bengali (ISO-15919: kariẏā) 'having done' in Typical East Bengali is [kɔ̝i̯ɾa̟], having gone through the medial phase of *[kɔi̯ɾi̯ä], from original [kɔɾi̯ɑ]; by comparison, the Standard Colloquial Bengali equivalent is [kore], as the standard language has undergone the additional phonological processes of syncope and umlaut, unlike most Eastern Bengali dialects.: "অভিশ্রুতি এবং স্বরসঙ্গতি নাই, সুতরাং স্বরধ্বনিতে প্রাচীনত্ব খানিকটা রক্ষিত (যেমন, রাখিয়া > *রাইখিআ > রাইখা, করিয়া > *কইরিয়া > কইরা, দেশি)"
Similar occurrences of metathesis occur in the case of consonant conjuncts containing ্য jôphôla, due to the fact that it had, in earlier Bengali, also represented the addition of the semivowel [i̯] at the end of a conjunct containing it in addition to its current standard usage of simply geminating the previous consonant in the conjunct.: "« -y » in a consonant nexus brings about epenthesis in Vaŋga and North Bengali, and to some extent in Varêndra." (ISO-15919: satya, 'truth'), for example, pronounced [ʃɔt̪ːi̯ɔ] in Middle Bengali, is pronounced [ʃɔ̝i̯t̪ːo] in Eastern Bengali and [ʃot̪ːo] in Standard Bengali.
Metathesis also occurs in the case of consonant conjuncts which were once pronounced with [i̯] as a component even if they do not contain ্য jôphôla itself, such as ক্ষ (ISO-15919: kṣa), whose value in earlier Bengali was [kːʰi̯].: "Sanskrit ক্ষ « kṣ » had in Bengali, Assamese and Oṛiyā the value of « khy » initially and « -kkhy- « in the interior of a word" Hence (ISO-15919: rākṣasa, 'rakshasa'), with the Middle Bengali pronunciation of [rɑkːʰi̯ɔʃ], is pronounced [räi̯kʰːɔ́ʃ] or [räi̯kːɔ́ʃ] in Eastern Bengali and [räkːʰoʃ] in Standard Bengali. Such is also the case for the conjunct জ্ঞ (ISO-15919: jña), which had the value of [gːĩ̯] in earlier Bengali.: "and Sanskrit জ্ঞ « jñ » similarly had the sounds of « gy-, -ggy- », with the nasalisation of the contiguous vowels." Hence, (ISO-15919: ājñā, 'order'), with the Middle Bengali pronunciation of [ɑgːĩ̯ɑ], has the Typical East Bengali pronunciation of [äi̯gːa̟] and the Standard Bengali [ägːä̃].
There is also a tendency to hypercorrect, leading to the diphthongisation of other vowels with [i̯] (true epenthesis) if they precede any geminated consonant, even when there is no etymological basis to do so. For example, (ISO-15919: brāhma, 'Brahmo') has the Standard Bengali pronunciation of [bɾämɦo], or, more commonly, [bɾämːo], but may be pronounced [bɾäi̯mːɔ̝] in Eastern Bengali as if it were spelt (ISO-15919: brāmya).: "য-ফলায় ও যুক্তব্যঞ্জনে অপিনিহিতির মত স্বরাগম হয় (যেমন, সত্য > সইত্ত, ব্রাহ্ম > ব্রাইম্ম, রাক্ষস > রাইক্খস)": "and the groups ক্ষ জ্ঞ হ্ম « kṣ, jñ, hm », pronounced like « kkhy, ggỹ, my », behave in the same way"
Vowels FrontCentralBackCloseClose-mid()()Open-midOpen The vowels /e/ and /o/ in the standard language are shifted to /ɛ/ and /u/, respectively.: "and the close « ē » of West Bengali frequently becomes open [ɛ] in Vaŋga": "West Bengali « o », original or derived, often becomes « u » in Vaŋga.": "এ-কার প্রায়ই অ্যা-কারে এবং ও-কার উ-কারে পরিণত" For example, (ISO-15919: dēśa) 'country' and (ISO-15919: dōṣa) 'blame' are respectively pronounced [d̪eʃ] and [d̪oʃ] in Standard Bengali but [d̪ɛʃ] and [d̪uʃ] in Typical East Bengali. /e/ and /o/ may be considered marginal phonemes, due to lack of mergers in rare instances, such as in (ISO-15919: kēn) 'buy' and (ISO-15919: dhō) 'wash'. /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ have raised allophones, [ɛ̝] and [ɔ̝], that occur when followed by a close vowel such as /i/ or /u/.: "A preference for the open vowels and thus 'e' becoming 'ae' if it is not checked by closed vowels 'i' and 'u'." This raising may also occur in open syllables. /ɑ/ is centralized, generally pronounced [ä]. A major exception to this is when the previous vowel is /i/, especially in cases of metathesis, where a fronted allophone [a̟] is used instead. Although Western Bengali features distinct nasalised forms of each of its vowels, nasalisation is absent in most dialects of Eastern Bengali with the notable exception of Southeastern Vaṅga.: "but in the Vaŋga dialects nasalisation is entirely dropped: only in certain Eastern Vaŋga dialects, e.g., Chittagongese, nasalisation has recently developed from a Bengali intervocal «-m-»" This lack of nasalisation also characterises the Standard Bengali of Bangladesh.
Consonants LabialDentalAlveolarPalato-alveolarRetroflexVelarGlottalNasalPlosivevoicelessunaspiratedaspirated(t̪ʰ)(tʰ)(kʰ)voicedAffricatevoiceless()voicedFricativevoicelessvoicedApproximantRhotic